Indiana Political Stalemate Ends With Meta-Unionizing

While the Wisconsin collective-bargaining bill winds its way through the courts, Indiana Democrats return from Urbana to their state after having won substantial concessions from the state GOP.

By Whet Moser

Published March 28, 2011

Wisconsin has been dominating the political news this late winter/early spring ever since Scott Walker decided to take it to the state’s unions, thanks in part to the ongoing protests and the departure of the state’s Democratic senators to Illinois. But another group of Democratic legislators also took a long trip to the Land of Lincoln (new state tourism slogan: If You Lived Here, You Wouldn’t Have to Flee to Preserve Collective Bargaining): Indiana Democrats, who bailed for nearly identical reasons.

And now they’re back, leading to a quality moment in political rhetoric: “Republicans in the Hoosier State say what Democrats call concessions are ‘accommodations.’” They’re the sort of, um, accommodations that have dogged Wisconsin Democrats, perhaps because governor and perpetual probable presidential candidate Mitch Daniels has taken a much more centrist position than Walker. One of the big accommodations: killing a plan that would have allowed underperforming schools to be leased to private companies.

Other developments in the political cauldron that’s the Great Lakes:

* If you’ve missed the Wisconsin state Supreme Court race, you missed even more great moments in political rhetoric: “In the context of this, I said, ‘You are a total bitch…’ I probably overreacted, but I think it was entirely warranted.”